Wang Jian opened the book called "I'm a Great Mage" in his mind and slowly started to read it.
This book mainly told the story of an ordinary high school student named Wu Lai, who was struck by lightning from the Otherworld and thus traveled to the Otherworld.
But the Otherworld no longer had steam and electricity, but had turned into magic and swords.
Fortunately, Wu Lai was born with unique abilities, and by eating sweet potatoes, he enhanced his infinite magic power, and from then on, he galloped across the world. He tamed powerful demon beasts, conquered top beauties, and became the ruler of both Heaven and Hell.
In the end, he became the demon god king, whose name would be remembered for ages, and lived happily ever after with his wives.
The highlights of this book included the ease of gaining power, powerful demons acting cute and asking for hugs, and princesses from both the god and demon races vying for the protagonist.
Moreover, the protagonist was very cool in the end, with wings half white and half black, and powerful forbidden spells like Absolute Zero and Earth Bear.
Anyway, reading this made Wang Jian feel both thrilled and awkward.
Thrilled, indeed, it was thrilling.
Especially compared to just finishing "Aquaman," the thrill points were like eating garlic with chili peppers, frequent and satisfying.
The awkward part was the immature writing, excessive fantasizing, and slight factual errors.
But none of this was important.
The important thing was that Wang Jian felt an inexplicable familiarity with this book.
He quietly looked at the rows of bookshelves in his mind and watched as the second book started to take shape.
Wang Jian couldn't help but be moved.
These books, could they be the ones he read in his past life?
Could he find clues about the development of the United States from these books?
Then, using this foresight, seize opportunities and reach the pinnacle of life?
He thought and acted immediately.
Wang Jian skimmed through "I'm a Great Mage" in his mind once more.
Who knew if reading in his mind had some kind of special speed boost?
Anyway, a few minutes later, Wang Jian had finished reading it again.
But...
This book had absolutely nothing to do with reality.
Let alone the reality of the United States.
The protagonist only fought and fell in love...
This was quite awkward.
Wang Jian even thought that, actually, books like "Aquaman" that talked about advanced technological weapons weren't bad either.
He himself would never think of making money by publishing these novels, right?
His forehead twitched slightly.
Not to mention that translating Chinese original novels into English was already very difficult.
Could Americans even accept this style of excessive fantasizing in novels?
At this moment, the apartment phone suddenly rang.
Wang Jian quickly picked it up, and a familiar female voice came through.
It was Supervisor Lily Rush, primarily overseeing whether he had engaged in any illegal activities again, and if he had attended community labor on time.
Wang Jian needed to report to her at two in the afternoon and perform four hours of community labor.
Looking up, he saw it was already one-thirty in the afternoon.
He had been too engrossed in reading comics and studying the novels in his mind to even think about lunch.
Wang Jian quickly ran downstairs, grabbed a sandwich on the way, and then hopped on the bus, heading to the rendezvous point.
The rendezvous point was in the Bronx District, within a relatively upscale white community, and the community service workers were mainly non-violent offenders, mostly white and Asian.
As for African Americans and Latinos, most of them went to pick up trash along the railroad and highway lines.
When Wang Jian arrived at the rendezvous point, it was exactly two o'clock.
He saw a blonde beauty about 170 cm tall, dressed in a blue uniform, with a pleasing face and furrowed brows, saying, "Next time, be earlier."
"Yes, yes," Wang Jian panted heavily and said.
"Then grab the tools and pair up with him to clean the community," she pointed to an old white man in the distance.
Then she walked back to the car in her high heels.
Wang Jian turned his head and saw that the old white man opposite him was a short, bald man with a wrinkled face, small eyes, and light eyebrows.
"Hello, you can call me Wang," Wang Jian said, "It looks like we'll be partners from now on. What's your name?"
"John Kramer," the old white man rasped and then said nothing more.
Wang Jian shrugged. If he didn't want to talk, fine. He could think about how to make money.
After finishing community labor, he needed to go to the bookstore to see what styles of books were popular lately.
Was there any possibility of publishing "I'm a Great Mage" to make money?
If he could make money, that would be great.
If he couldn't, then he would have to keep looking for a job.
At this moment, the old man named John suddenly asked Wang Jian, "Why were you sentenced to community labor?"
Wang Jian was taken aback at first, then said a bit embarrassedly, "Theft, but it was the first offense. So, I got probation and community service. How about you?"
The old man's eyes narrowed slightly, then he rasped, "Dangerous driving and property damage. Why did you steal?"
"Uh," Wang Jian hesitated for a moment, then said, "I wanted to go to a community college, get a diploma, and find a good job. But my family situation disqualified me from student loans."
"Oh." Old John just nodded and said nothing more.
However, Wang Jian felt the other person seemed less sharp, if it wasn't his imagination.
The gentle breeze on the East Coast of the United States could not stop the gradually rising temperature, and the not-so-strong sunlight shining on the body made people feel exceptionally comfortable.
Just like that, Wang Jian's first day of community labor came to an end without him realizing it.
After signing in and saying goodbye to old John, he went to a newsstand and bought a special edition of Best-Selling Books in America 1994-1995.
Then, he sped back to his apartment.
He had to run because the area around the apartment was chaotic.
Here, not to mention the nationwide battle of the Limp Gang and Blood Gang, there were countless small gangs.
Gangs like the "18th Street," "Aryan Brotherhood," "Jamaica Civilian Corps," and the infamous "MS-13," "Salvadorans," could all be found here.
Their business range extended from garbage handling to drug trafficking, from vegetable sales at community gates to contract killings.
Whatever you could think of, they were involved in.
Thus, the Bronx in New York, along with Compton in Los Angeles and City South District in Chicago, were known as the three most chaotic areas in the United States.
Free America, a gunfight every day, probably referred to this place.
After running back to the apartment in fearful anticipation, Wang Jian once again resolved to make money and move out of the Bronx as soon as the community service was over.
Then he looked at the bestseller rankings in the New York Times.
In the overall best-seller list, regardless of category, the number one was "The Road to Success."
The second was "Success Science."
In the newly published bestsellers of 1994-1995, the highest rank was "Conversations with God" series at 37th place.
The second highest was the book "Federal Reserve" created in 1994, currently ranked 40th.
The third highest was the 44th ranked "The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus." This book was also the top-ranked in non-fiction novels.